U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank on Friday denied xAI's request for a preliminary injunction against Minnesota's ban on AI-generated fake nude images, leaving the law in effect since August 1 while the company's constitutional challenge proceeds. [1] Frank found that Elon Musk's xAI failed to show it would suffer harm during the suit. [1] The order is not a ruling that the statute is constitutional. Merits remain open.

xAI argues the measure restricts speech protected by the First Amendment. Minnesota says the law is narrowly tailored to curb nonconsensual sexual imagery made with artificial intelligence. [1] "The constitutional issues raised by the parties are complex, particularly when considered in the context of this new technology and the risks that it poses to the public," Frank wrote. "These issues deserve, and will receive, full consideration." [1] The company said in a Friday court filing that it will appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. [1]

Attorney General Keith Ellison called the law "overwhelmingly bipartisan and nearly unanimously approved." [1] "These nudification apps have been used to generate child sexual abuse materials and harass people in the vilest ways imaginable," he said. "That repulsive behavior is not welcome in Minnesota." [1] Frank had earlier declined in July to stop the law from taking effect and agreed to fast-track review. [1] Do not write that the Constitution has spoken. A denied injunction is a denied injunction. The statute stays on.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco